K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Heather Wilson

Finally the next instalment of Rocky and his plan for world domination is here! KGF2 is more of the same as Chapter 1, but with even more guns, declarative speeches and dramatic hair tosses from the leading man. The film follows on from the events of KGF1 to show Rocky now in control of the gold fields, but with so many enemies out to get him, how long will be manage to stay in power? Needless to say the answer involves plenty of brutal, blood-soaked violence and villainous in-fighting as the various factions try to gain the upper hand. It’s a whole lot of fun to watch as Prashanth Neel delivers yet another blockbuster in his definitive style.

The film opens with a group of men unearthing a buried statue of Rocky. We knew from the start of Chapter 1 that he didn’t have a good end, but the resulting crowd that surrounds the excavation serves to remind us that even if the Indian Government wanted to wipe his legacy from the record books, his people still remember. It’s a powerful opening and an excellent reminder that Rocky was more than just a leader for the slaves in the mine – he was a god.

The film moves back to where KGF1 finished, with Rocky having killed the mine controller Garuda and taken control of the gold fields. He moves quickly to consolidate his power, and demonstrates his ruthlessness by killing Kamal (Vasishta N. Simha) when he objects to Rocky kidnapping Reena (Srinidhi Shetty). Perhaps in keeping with the seventies vibe, this is not a film that is progressive about women. All the female characters are either mothers or ‘entertainment’ with the exception of Ramila Sen (Raveena Tandon) who ends up as the Prime Minister of India. Raveena Tandon has more screen time and makes more of an impact than Srinidhi, despite the latter’s role as Rocky’s love interest. But Rocky’s mother Shanthamma (Archana Jois) and the slave woman (Eswari Rao) who is Farmaan’s mother, also have roles with a bigger impact than Reena. It’s a shame, especially that there is no big dance number, as in the small amount of choreography we do see, Srinidhi is lovely and I would have liked to have seen more. She does well with her limited role and hopefully we get to see her in more films soon.

As part of his plans, Rocky opens up all the mines for exploration amidst rumours that he exploiting the workers for his own gain. Attacks from his rivals organised by gangster Shetty (Dinesh Mangaluru) lead him to develop his own army from the slaves in the mines. To this end he recruits former overseer Vanaram (Ayyappa P. Sharma) to train the boys and look after security. But Rocky’s efforts seem in vain when Adheera (Sanjay Dutt) returns and kidnaps Reena as bait to lure Rocky out of the KGF complex. Of course that’s not the end of it as alliances are made and broken, politician Guru Pandian (Achyuth Kumar) schemes and plots and CBI officer Raghavan (Rao Ramesh) recruits the Prime Minister in his quest to bring Rocky to justice.

I was perhaps a little less invested in this film than the first one, I think because there is less emotional impact to the story. There is less of Rocky’s ‘soft side’ and even the impact of the young slaves taking up arms to fight for Rocky, and the children idolising their hero is lessened simply because there is just so much story to get through. It does make for tighter and more effective action but I felt the lack of the emotional core that underpinned the first story. However, there are plenty of amazing action sequences choreographed by Anbariv and others, and the special effects are world class. I still enjoyed the film immensely and it’s very close to being the perfect sequel. Sanjay Dutt is actually quite brilliant as Adheera making him a maniacal Viking with an unlimited capacity for cruelty. He is suitably dramatic and OTT in a role where nothing else would work as well. There are so many epic scenes that I can’t even begin to find a favourite, although Rocky’s entrance scene to the beats of hundreds of drums is certainly up there.

Prashanth Neel uses the music from Ravi Basrur as part of the action, as he has done previously with the BGM in Ugramm. As the action ramps up, so does the score and it helps makes the fight sequences even more adrenaline inducing. What doesn’t work so well are the black screens he interposes in the car chase sequence where Rocky is chasing after the men who have Reena. I found that this broke up the action and slowed the effect down too much. But that’s a small quibble in a film where the action choreography is outstanding, and the fight sequences are the key to everything else in the story. Yash is again awesome as Rocky and despite the small audience for the show I went to, the entire theatre was cheering and whistling at his entry scene (me too!). He owns the character of Rocky through and through and invests him with real star power. As we see more of Rocky’s back story and his mother’s instructions, his name and stoic demeanour are ever more appropriate and the reason for his drive for success is as sad as it is inspirational. He takes on the seventies fashion with as much flare as in KGF1 and looks amazing in both the action and dramatic sequences. Again, most of the dialogue is declarative and uttered with high drama, but it suits the film premise and all the actors buy into the trope so it doesn’t seem overdone.

Of the rest of the cast, most are suitably aggressive as various gangsters and Achyuth Kumar is suitably devious as a scheming politician. The narrator for KGF1, Anand Ingalagi (Anant Nag) is ill when the story begins, and the narration is taken over by his son Vijayendra (Prakash Raj). The breaks to the narration, still to Deepa Hegde (Malavika Avinash), serve as a good contrast to the more bombastic action sequences and help to fill in the back story as villains fly across the screen briefly before being shot, decapitated or otherwise destroyed by Rocky. I am a big fan of Ayyappa so loved seeing him back in the action and also really enjoyed watching Dinesh Mangaluru’s Shetty try to stay in control.

KGF2 deserves to be a blockbuster. Prashanth Neel has created a well defined world with characters that are well drawn with clear motivations and who all act in alignment with those drivers. Nothing is left to chance and despite the cast of thousands it is always clear exactly who everyone is and their role in the plot. The end credits give a tantalising teaser that there may be a KGF3. If so, sign me up now! Highly recommended for fans of action films who don’t mind some blood and gore with a really well made story.

Khal Nayak

Posted on June 17, 2014 by masalaaddict

Subhash Ghai’s Khalnayak is a fairly predictable cops and robbers story twined with references to the Ramayana which adds depth and resonance. There are some excellent performances, stylish visuals and excellent music. But at a shade over 3 hours, the pace is stately to the point of plodding and there is too much emphasis on the meaning, and not quite enough on the drama.

Ram (Jackie Shroff) is assigned a case to bring down a terrorist organisation. Ballu (Sanjay Dutt) is the poster boy for Roshida’s (Pramod Muthu) gang. When Ballu escapes from jail, Ram is accused of neglecting his duty to go spend time with his girlfriend Ganga (Madhuri Dixit). When what looks like every policeman in India is put on Ballus’ trail with no success, Ganga finds a way to infiltrate the gang. She sees that Ballu is not quite as bad as he seems, although he is far from being misunderstood. Eventually the police close in, and Ganga is caught between Ram, duty, and her empathy with Ballu.

Madhuri looks stunning and delivers a strong and engaging characterisation. There is nothing simpering or weak about prison officer Ganga. When she sees an opportunity to help Ram restore his reputation, she asks for his support. Then she does it anyway. When she sees Ballu needs medical help, she just goes and gets a doctor because it is the right thing to do. Madhuri does some wonderful deliberately bad acting when Ganga, having captivated Ballu, joins the gang and goes on the run.

Then in Aaja Sajan Aaja she is simply incandescent as she dances for her Ram. Madhuri was also lucky as Ganga dresses in Indian attire, not the hideous synthetic 80s gear that Ballu wears when he tries to impress.

Sanjay Dutt is so very good in some scenes that it makes me angry at how bad he is for much of the film. He adopted a range of bizarre grimaces and physical tics that I think were meant to emphasise the animal side of Ballu, but just made him look ridiculous and clumsy. When he dropped the exaggerated mannerisms and just channelled the emotions, he was compelling and raw. While asserting his ownership of Ganga, Ballu accidentally defends democracy and becomes a Nayak for those people. His awakening to being respected and enjoying that feeling was nicely done, even though there was a lot of literal flag waving to make sure the point didn’t escape unnoticed.

Jackie Shroff is perfectly competent as Ram, and only tries to tear his clothes off once so that was good. For my money Ram is the least interesting character. He knows he is right, everyone knows he is right and he is not averse to using extreme force against Ballu to prove how right he is. While there is an interesting dynamic between hero and villain, there is minimal character development for Ram. A relationship between Ganga and Ballu would be a Very Bad Idea but I thought marrying Ram could be a bit suffocating.

The Ramayana elements were more obvious to me on a recent re-watch than when I first saw it, particularly the twists on that narrative. I couldn’t help but compare this with Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan (which I greatly prefer to the Hindi Raavan). In Raavanan, Ram revealed his darker side and could become as Ravana but Khal Nayak seems to say rather that Ravana has the potential to be Rama. I liked that the question of what makes a hero or a villain was articulated and that this was more than a glorification of Rama. Ganga didn’t sway from her beliefs when she was frightened, and kept her faith in Ram. Ram wanted to believe Ganga but society and the law demanded she was still put to trial. I was annoyed that she had to have her virtue validated by a thief and murderer, a man so despicable in the eyes of the law that he had besmirched her just by his proximity but whose word was still worth more than hers. I know she is Sita and he is Ravana, but still. The film plays with some of the conventions especially around the notion of hero and villain. Ram is also helped by Ballu’s testimony, his reputation restored by the hand of a sinner.

Ghai doesn’t quite go the whole hog but he does use a range of staple masala ingredients and has a lush visual style. Ram and Ballu have bloody fights that crash through walls and take to the treetops. There are long lost childhood friends and dreary paeans to motherhood. There are coincidences, speechifying and tearful reconciliations galore. The evil mastermind Roshida has a nasty disposition and lots of cats who do a fabulous job of reacting to stuff.

Rakhee gets a lot of screen time as Arti, not all of it crying. Neena Gupta makes an impression as the striking Champa. Ramya Krishnan is charismatic as Ballu’s girlfriend Sophia, and also gets both versions of the title song. What a waste to have her in such a small role, but how great to have so many powerful actresses in one film. The female characters are strong and quite distinct, but Subhash Ghai stays firmly within the conventions of 90s masala so none of them break the mould of Ma, the friend, bad girl etc. Oh, and Anupam Kher does his customary shtick as Pandey the prison warden.

There are interesting observations about the conventions of parenting and filial behaviour. Ganga tries to evoke Ballu’s sentimental side by talking wistfully of how much he must love his Ma and how hard it must be for him to live on the run. He calls Ganga out on trying to manipulate him through sentiment, but he rejects that as unimportant to him. Question – If a villain shouts ‘Ma!’ in his sleep and there is no one to hear it, does he have feelings?

Mind you, when Ballu is beating Ram up because why not, Arti hits Ballu for assaulting Ram, Ballu shoves her so Ram belts him for hitting a Ma, then Ballu fights back and Arti comes back at him to stop him using violence. A move straight out of the Nirupa Roy Filmi Ma Manual.

The songs are extensions or amplifications of the narrative as well as being beautiful and usually pleasingly melodic.

I am not so fond of that title track, although it does epitomise early 90s style and Ramya Krishnan works that beaded gear for all it’s worth.

I had to pity choreographer Saroj Khan. Between Dutt’s own ‘dance’ style and the outfit given to Ballu in the final song, he looked more like a demented fruitbat. Seeing Ballu and the boys try their seductive dance moves on Ganga was highly amusing. But she choreographed some beautiful dances for Madhuri. I went to see the Temptations Reloaded show up in Sydney last year, and the roof nearly came off when the opening bars of Choli Ke Peeche played.

The first hour of the film could be condensed to around 20 minutes with no great loss, but things get much more interesting once events are set in motion. While it is a visually strong and often darkly dramatic film, the pace suffers from Ghai’s concentration on symbols and stylised elements rather than closely following the emotional arcs of the characters. Very much worth watching, but some patience is required. 3 ½ stars!

Zanjeer (2013)

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Heather Wilson

There is always a risk in remaking an older film, especially if that film is a classic and starred the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Pran, Om Prakash and Ajit Khan, to name but a few. So bearing that in mind, there were a couple of approaches I thought the makers of Zanjeer might take. However rather than keeping the same storyline and characters but updating the film to the present day, or using the original film as ‘inspiration’, Suresh Nair and Apoorva Lakhia seem to have gone instead for a middle of the road approach, keeping a few key scenes and characters but otherwise changing plot points rather randomly. The confusion in the story is not helped by reducing both the heroine Mala (Priyanka Chopra) and the villain Teja (Prakash Raj) to comic relief, while as the hero, Charan ends up as much less of an angry young man, and more of a petulant and plain bad-tempered one. Even worse, director Apoorva Lakhia doesn’t let Charan dance – except for a few basic steps with Sanjay Dutt – until the song over the end credits. Even then the choreography is particularly uninspiring. However, despite the dog’s breakfast of a story and enough plot holes to swallow the entire cast of thousands, there are a few reasons to watch this film, although I’d recommend waiting for the DVD and the FF button.

The film starts with a particularly sleazy and unattractive opening song where a scantily clad but heavily begrimed female dancer twists and turns her way through numerous hanging chains in a very S & M inspired look. Thankfully that’s probably the absolute low point of the film, and there’s really no other option than for it to improve from here – it couldn’t possibly get any worse. The visuals then switch to a shirtless Charan twisting in bed in the throes of a nightmare, followed by some blatant muscle flexing and posturing, and it’s immediately apparent that subtlety is not a word in Apoorva Lakhia’s vocabulary. Not that I’m complaining about some blatant over-exposure, but it’s a bit too obvious and cheap for someone who is already an established star with a couple of hit films under their belt. As if that wasn’t enough, Charan’s opening action scene as ACP Vijay Khanna takes place under the protective gaze of his father Chiranjeevi, and his uncle Pawan Kaylan, as they beam down from posters in the background. As I said, subtlety is definitely not on the agenda for Zanjeer.

After his latest contretemps, ACP Vijay Khanna (Charan) is transferred for the umpteenth time for his enthusiasm in subduing the local riff-raff, but this time is moved all the way from Hyderabad to Mumbai, presumably in his superior’s hope that he won’t be able to find his way back. Meanwhile, Mala, a ditzy and dumb NRI is visiting her FB friend to attend her wedding, this clumsy piece of scriptwriting thus ensuring that Mala knows nothing about India, or Mumbai and in addition knows no-one in the area once her friend heads off on her honeymoon. By careful and contrived manipulation of events, Mala witnesses a murder, and does at least report it, but from there her character is increasingly less convincing as a modern woman, as she tries to avoid any further involvement with the police or the case. Sadly, rather than the feisty knife-wielding Mala of the original, this Mala is an overly chirpy drama queen who seems quite oblivious to the cultural differences between Mumbai and New York. Priyanka is giggly and immature but still looks older than her co-star even though there isn’t much difference in their respective ages. This may be down to Charan’s youthful good looks, but is more likely due to some heavy make-up for Priyanka.

There is also zero chemistry between the two, and their romance doesn’t so much develop as suddenly materialise in the space of a few glances and a song. The storyline seems to have called for a romance between the two which had to start by a certain point in the film, and so it did. No build-up, no justification, just ‘let there be a relationship between Mala and Vijay’, and boom there it was!

The murder witnessed by Mala leads to exposure of the illegal petrol trade, helped by the revelations of one of the new characters, journalist Jaydev (Atul Kulkarni). Atul Kulkarni puts in a good performance as the investigative journalist, and revels in a more sensibly drawn character with a defined storyline – something of a rarity here.

Sanjay Dutt as Sher Khan keeps to the original character as played by Pran, and his world-weary look actually suits the part. However his every appearance is heralded by incredibly loud and intrusive background music which completely overshadows his performance. Keeping the character of Sher Khan similar to the original also backfires since the simple ‘crook with a heart of gold’ just doesn’t fit with the other modernised characters, although the scenes between Sher Khan and ACP Vijay are still some of the best in the film. Or would have been if they’d just stopped with all the loud background music!

Prakash Raj’s Teja is a bumbling buffoon in an ever more outrageous array of colourful suits and patterned cravats. In fact one of the high points of the film is waiting to see just how garish and inappropriate his next outfit will be. But turning the unscrupulous and immoral Teja into comic relief just doesn’t work, and Mona Darling’s (Mahie Gill) best efforts with Viagra and other seductive devices fall flat too. Prakash Raj is, at least initially, suitably oily and effusive, but the dialogue (going by the subtitles) is clichéd and too ridiculous to hold any menace or threat.

However it’s not all completely terrible. What does work well in the film are the action sequences, and there are plenty of them. Charan is effortlessly effective in the fight scenes and his energy lifts the film, particularly since he tends to keep a glum and glowering expression in most of the scenes with dialogue. There are plenty of the required explosions, chase sequences (through Ganesh Chaturthi imersion celebrations of course) and mass fight scenes. Charan also did well with the angry glare and volcanic temper of Vijay, but the reasons for his rage are never very well explained despite that being the whole point of the original film. Worth a DVD watch for Charan and Atul Kulkarni, and to play your own version of ‘spot the worst Prakash Raj outfit’!